Ludlow Porch was a famous southern talk show host who was famous for al kinds of jokes he played on the radio, including getting all kinds of threats from around the country when he made the claim that Montana did not exist.

“I was born with a face for radio,” he would often quip.

There aren’t very many of us who have been blessed with supermodel looks.

Now that the Internet is starting to mature a bit, thankfully we’re seeing less of these, but they’re still out there… websites that cover the screen with about 30-40 copies of a photograph tiled in like a floor.

Although there is no written rule saying so, having a background photo that tiles all over the background tells visitors that a company values the object of the photo more than anything else on the page, but worse, it distracts visitors’ attention.

Usually, the photos are of the owner’s child and pet dog, or they are an amateur glamour shot, or something along those lines. It’s rarely a professional photograph… and if a photograph is not professionally done and doesn’t help convey the message of the website, then why is it up there in the first place?

Tiled photography distracts attention from the marketing message. When a company is selling a product, effective advertising and design put eyeballs on the message, not the background. It is much better to find one really good photo that represents what your company does and then use that one on your site as an anchor visual.